[B-Greek] Words for "to be amazed"

Carl W.Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Jan 25 06:31:01 EST 2007


On Jan 24, 2007, at 10:49 AM, Alan Terlep wrote:

> I have a question that illustrates why a little Greek is a good thing.
>
> I'm a new pastor (6 months in) with not enough Greek to feel
> confident.  But I'm preparing a sermon on miracles and I want to focus
> on the reactions of the crowd to miracles.  I note that there are
> several different words used to describe the "amazement" or
> "astonishment" that people feel when they witness miracles, and the
> English translations seem to use these words interchangeably.  I can
> look them up in my BDAG but I would appreciate some input on the
> connotations of various words for "to be amazed."
>
> EKQAMAZW

should be EKQAUMAZW

> EKQAMBEW
> EXISTAW

should be EXISTAMAI/EXISTHMI

EKQAUMAZW: be utterly amazed (at)  (1x, only in Mark)
Mark 12:17 (reaction to Jesus' statement about giving to Caesar and  
to God)

EKQAMBEW: be amazed (3x, all in Mark)
Mark 9:15 (reaction of crowd seeing Jesus coming, crowd in midst of  
dispute between scribes and J's disciples)
Mark 14:33 (in Gethsemane, 4 disciples taken along with Jesus are  
surprised and anxious about it)
Mark 16:5 (women at the tomb react to seeing NEANISKON in tomb, are  
bidden be him MH EKQAMBEISQE. But it's clear at the end of 16:8 that  
the women are terrified by their experience)

EXISTAMAI/EXISTHMI: amaze, confuse (17x) EXISTAMAI, aor. EXESTHN is  
the intransitive form meaning "be out of one's ordinary state of  
mind" -- whether in a raving frenzy or in shock at some experience;  
EXISTHMI, aor. EXESTHSA is the causative transitive form meaning "put  
a person/people out of ordiary state of mind."

For my part I don't think there's much to be gained from the effort  
to differentiate between these verbs, and I note that Louw & Nida  
(§§25.206-222) indicate several other verbs, nouns, and adjectives   
meaning "surprise" or "astonish" -- including (in addition to the  
three asked about)  XENIZOMAI, MEGAS ('surprising, srange'), QAMBOS,  
QAMBEOMAI, EKQAMBEOMAI, EKQAMBOS, QAUMA, QAUMASIOS, EKSTASIS,  
EKPLHSSOMAI, SUGCEW, STUGNAZW.

Gospel-narrative units about healing and other miraculous deeds of  
Jesus (and/or his disciples) characteristically include explicit  
comments regarding amazement of observers; so also there are  
indications of amazement at Jesus' teaching. I'm not sure that one  
can extract from all such notes much more than that these reactions  
are all triggered by experiences that transcend people's normal  
understanding and comfort-level and they all hint at the presence of  
something either awesome or frightening -- whether in a positive or  
in a negative way.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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